IDC: iPad 2, PlayBook Gobbled Android Market Share Last Quarter

It looks like both Apple’s iPad 2 and RIM’s PlayBook took a fairly big bite out of Android OS’s tablet market share in the second quarter of 2011. Market intelligence firm International Data Corporation reports that iPad 2 market share rose in Q2 2011, while Android’s collective tablet market share fell precipitously.

RIM’s PlayBook debuted in the second quarter, snatching 4.9% of the tablet market, and Apple’s iPad 2 rose from 65.7% during the first quarter to 68.3% during the second. Android-based tablets fell from 34% during the first quarter to 26.8% during the second.

Around the world, tablet shipments were up nearly 90% year-to-date and nearly 304% year-on-year, topping out at 13.6 million units, says IDC. The greater-than-expected growth prompted the intelligence provider to boost its global tablet sales projections for the second half of 2011 to 62.5 million units, up from 53.5 million units. IDC attributes surging global tablet sales to “robust demand” for the iPad 2 (no surprise), noting the iPad 2 shipped 9.3 million units in Q2 2011.

What’s next? Expect further erosion of Android’s tablet market share (IDC says it’ll drop to just 23%), but that things should pick up in the fourth quarter, allowing Android to regain a few points and land near 26%. Complicating matters: HP’s orphaned TouchPad, which customers scooped up in droves when HP dropped the price to just $99 on August 18, less than seven weeks after the webOS-based tablet debuted. IDC says it expects “close to a million TouchPads to ship into the channel before the end of the year,” raising webOS’s market share to a respectable 4.7% in 3Q 2011 (though IDC says it’ll be back to zero by early next year).

“Media tablet shipments grew at a solid pace in the second quarter, led by continued strong demand for Apple products,” said Tom Mainelli, a research director for Mobile Connected Devices. “We expect shipment totals to continue to grow in the third and fourth quarter, as additional vendors introduce more price-competitive Android products into the market and Apple works to maintain its dominance in the category.”

And analyst Jennifer Song with Worldwide Trackers expects Apple’s iOS to stay ahead of Android by over 40 percentage points through 2011. Expect iOS shares to fall, however, as new tablets from competitors hit the market next year, she said.